1972-1974 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Imperial College of Science and Technology.

1968-1969 Systems Engineer, Marconi Space and Defence Systems

1964-1965 Pre-University Trainee, AEI Ltd

Background

I carried out my research training in the Control Theory Group at Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, and obtained my PhD in geometric dynamical systems theory in 1972. After a further five years at Imperial, as a post-doc and then lecturer, and ten years at Kingston University, where I served as Head of the School of Computing from 1984 to 1988, I joined the University of Plymouth in 1988 as a Research Professor. During 1987 I was a Visiting Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and served as Co-Director of the 1987 NATO Advanced Study Institute on Advanced Computing Methods in Control.

My interests in neural and adaptive systems developed in 1990, and in 1991 I founded the Neurodynamics Research Group, which was involved in developing dynamical systems models of information processing in the brain, and the Plymouth Engineering Design Centre, which investigated the application of adaptive computing methods to industrial engineering design problems. In 1994 I formed the Centre for Neural and Adaptive Systems (CNAS) from the work of the Neurodynamics Research Group. The CNAS pursued a research programme in the areas of computational neuroscience and neural computation, and by 2003 comprised eight academic staff. It became recognised as one of the leading international research groups in this field, and was awarded a grading indicating international excellence (grade "5") in the 2001 HEFCE Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)

In 2007 I retired from my academic post as Head of the Centre for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience. This was formed as a Research Centre of the University of Plymouth in October 2003, incorporating five of the academic staff from the CNAS and one from the Department of Psychology. The focus of the Centre's research programme was the application of rigorous quantitative approaches, including mathematical and computational modelling and psychophysics, to the study of information representation, processing, storage and transmission in the brain and its manifestation in perception and action. Areas of study include: visual and auditory perception; sensorimotor control, in particular oculomotor control; and mathematical and computational modelling of the neural circuitry underlying perception, attention, learning and memory, and motor control.

My external appointments have included serving as a member of the Computer Science Panel for both the 1996 and 2001 HEFCE Research assessment Exercises. In the past I have acted as a Specialist Advisor to the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology (1984), and as a member of several Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council committees, including committees in control engineering and engineering design and the two senior committees in the computing and information technology area, the Information Engineering Committee (1981-84) and the Information Technology Advisory Board (1993-94).

In 2000, I was elected to the Board of Governors of the International Neural Network Society (www.inns.org)on which I served until 2003. In 2001 I was invited to serve as one of the founder members of the UK Computing Research Committee (UKCRC), formed at that time as a policy committee for computing research in the UK, affiliated to the British Computer Society, the Institution of Electrical Engineers and the Conference of Professors and Heads of Computing. In 2003 I was invited to join the Medical Research Council's Brain Sciences Panel in respect of the MRC's Brain Sciences Initiative. Also in 2003 I was appointed as a member of the Animal Sciences Committee of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. I have also acted as an expert evaluator for various European Commission Calls for research proposals under the FET (Future and Emerging Technologies) Programme, most recently in 2012.

From 1999 to 2004 I was one of the founding directors and CTO of NeuVoice Ltd (www.neuvoice.com), which was a "spin-out" company founded in 1999 from research carried out in the CNAS on the human auditory system, and which produced state-of-the-art voice recognition products for the mobile communications/ computing market.

Professional membership

Membership of Learned Societies and Professional Organisations

Member, British Neuroscience AssociationMember, UKCRC

Roles on external bodies

1984 Specialist advisor to the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology

Member of the following committees of the Science and Engineering Research Council (now Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council):

1979-82 Control and Instrumentation Subcommittee

1981-84 Engineering Board Computing Committee

1982-84 Special Interest Group in Control of the SERC Interactive Computing Facility (Chairman)

1984-90 Management Committee for Special Programme in Computing and Design Techniques in Control Engineering

1989-91 Engineering Design Committee

1993-94 Information Technology Advisory Board

1981-87 Computing Board of the Council for National Academic Awards

1989-1992 IEE Professional Group Committee C7: Computer Aided Control Engineering

Teaching

Teaching interests

Teaching Modules

Research

Research interests

My research interests lie in the development of novel theories and associated computational models of information processing in the brain, in particular in relation to sensory perception, learning and memory. The aim is that these theories and models will (a) add to the basic understanding of the brain, and (b) provide the inspiration for novel computing systems which can behave in “brain-like” ways, in particular systems for vision, audition, learning and memory.

I am currently developing a theory of information processing in primary sensory neocortical neural circuits. This involves understanding and modelling the dynamical behaviour and properties of the neocortical six-layered architecture and circuitry, including the thalamocortical feedback circuit, and the role of this circuitry in the dynamic behaviour of receptive field properties. Of special interest is the role of contextual and attentional mechanisms in this behaviour.

Closely related to this is my fundamental research interest in developing a new theoretical basis for describing and analysing how information is represented and processed in neocortical circuits, using the mathematics of differential and algebraic geometry. This theory proposes that the neocortical microcircuit acts as a nonlinear dynamical system which constantly modifies its dynamics through pre-and post-synaptic interaction at circuit connections, and represents, memorises and processes information in the form of continuous spatiotemporal state trajectories in a very high dimensional space.

Another part of my recent research has been to understand and model some of the processes involved in learning and memory. Most recently this has been concerned with developing a systems level model of the role of the hippocampal region, including associated structures of the medial temporal lobe, in the fast learning of personal episodic events. This has involved: an investigation of the interactions of these areas with the neocortex, and with diencephalic and brainstem regions; modelling the rhythmic inhibition of hippocampal principal cells under the influence of medial septum; modelling the role of backpropagating action potentials, and A-type K+ channels on calcium influx, in the control of synaptic modification processes in hippocampal principal cells; developing a "spike-timing dependent" learning rule which mimics the experimentally observed temporal asymmetry of pairing effects on the induction of associative NMDA-mediated LTP and LTD in neocortical and hippocampal cells, for use in neural network models. Most of this recent work is in papers recently published in the journals Hippocampus and Reviews in the Neurosciences.

I am also interested in modelling the decision-making behavioural role of the frontal region of the brain, in particular the interactions between prefrontal and sensory/ motor regions of the neocortex, in predicting the actions required for goal achievement and learning the optimal sensory inputs and motor actions for maximising reward. In this respect, in collaboration with Dr Raju Bapi, I developed in 1997 a “biased competion” model of attention which was based on Grossberg's ARTMAP model and successfully modelled experiments of Roberts and colleagues on shifts in attentional set (Roberts et al, 1988, Q J Exp Psychol B. 40: 321-4)

Denham, M.J., Borisyuk, R.M. (2000) A Computational Model Of GABAergic Mediated Theta Rhythm Production In The Septal-Hippocampal System And Its Modulation By Ascending Brainstem Pathways. Proc of the Forum of European Neuroscience (FENS’2000), Brighton, UK. (Abstract)

Borisyuk R and Denham M (1999) A study of oscillatory activity in the model of septo-hippocampal system. Proc. of the Fifth SIAM Conference on Applications of Dynamical Systems. May, 1999, Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort, Snowbird, Utah Available as NTIS Technical report ADA366931 from http://www.ntis.gov/search/product.asp?ABBR=ADA366931&starDB=GRAHIST

Borisyuk R, Denham M, Kazanovich Y and Hoppensteadt F (1999) Oscillatory model of novelty detection in the hippocampus. Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Cognitive and Neural Systems, (abstract). Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University: USA.

Denham MJ and Borisyuk RM (1999) An oscillatory model of the septal-hippocampal inhibitory circuit and the modulation of hippocampal theta activity. Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Cognitive and Neural Systems, (abstract). Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University:USA.

McCabe SL and Denham MJ.(1998). A model of the perception of concurrent vowels at short durations. In: P Simpson (ed.), Proceedings of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN'98), 1575-1579. Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Press: New York.

Population-based modelling of the nonlinear dynamics of cortical circuits. Invited talk at the Inaugural Meeting of the theoretical Neuroscience Network, Loughborough University, September 15-17, 2004.

The Role of the Septal-Hippocampal System in a Global Network for Episodic Memory: What meets Where and When. Invited talk presented at the Maxwell Institute Neuroinformatics Workshop on Multilevel Neuronal Modelling and Simulation, University of Edinburgh, May 21-25, 2001.

The Role of the Hippocampus in a Global Network for Episodic Memory: What Meets Where and When. Invited talk presented at the Special Session on “The Global Brain”, IEEE/INNS International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN’2000), Como, Italy, 24-27 July 2000.

The Dynamics of Learning and Memory: Lessons from Neuroscience. Invited talk presented at the EmerNet: International Workshop on Emergent Neural Computational Architectures Based on Neuroscience, University of Edinburgh, 11th September 1999